Working paper
To drink or not to drink: the microeconomic analysis of alcohol consumption in Russia in 2006-2010
The goal of this project is to find out the influence of some economic and social factors on the demand for alcohol in modern Russia. The number of regression models is estimated on the base of "The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE)" 1994-2011. There are classic models of demand for alcohol of Becker and Murphy (1988): static, myopic and rational addiction models. We use two-step way of estimation because of two-step consumer decision ("to drink or not to drink" and how much to drink). This way let it possible to find out the factors of every decision separately. The new idea of this research is to use as independent variables not only economic parameters (as prices and incomes of respondent and his\her family members) but some social characteristics such as educational level, gender, age, nationality, optimism level, alcohol use by other family members, and other. The first results have demonstrated some that social factors (education, marital status, alcohol use by other family members) are more important that the economic ones (as price for alcohol).
This article is focused on the connection between extracurricular sports and alcohol consumption among students in vocational schools (VS). Data collected in 2014 contains information on engagement in individual and team sports and frequency of alcohol consumption by students from vocational schools in St.-Petersburg (29 schools, 2935 students, 77% of them being boys with an average age of 17). Analysis with logistic regressions demonstrates that the effect of extra-curricular sports on drinking is rather low. The main conclusions are: (1) patterns of alcohol consumption are different for boys and girls; (2) team sports are positively related to frequency of drinking; (3) there are no gender differences in the relations between team sports and drinking; and (4) reaching the legal drinking age (18 years old) is more strongly associated with drinking than engaging in team sports. Future studies of adolescent risk behavior are necessary to understand whether these results are unique for extracurricular sports activities or common for all extracurricular activities which involve teams.
Alcohol consumption is known to have an impact on various aspects of individual’s life. This paper is based on the idea that the alcohol consumption is very likely to influence on subjective well-being. Using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of HSE (RLMS-HSE) in this paper the links between alcohol consumption and subjective well-being is examined. RLMS-HSE data shows that a significant number of individuals consumed alcohol in the last month in Russia, the proportion of men drinkers is extremely high, and is around 60-70%. Two sources of endogeneity are discussed in the paper: individual characteristics, such as one’s value system and traits of character; and the existing environment, for example, a negative macroeconomic situation. Empirical estimates are obtained using probit adapted OLS approach. Results suggest that reasonable consumption of alcohol improves the level of life satisfaction. However, alcohol abuse produces negative effects on life satisfaction.
The subject of this article is a research on interregional differences in volume and structure of alcohol consumption based on official statistical data and testing of a hypothesis about various macroeconomic factors influencing alcohol consumption. This testing was carried out with regression analysis method on the basis of data from regions of the Russian Federation. Indicators used in the analysis were received from official state statistics' sources that are free to access on respective web-sites. Due to the lack of data on alcohol consumption by regions, sales rates of alcohol beverages in per capita volume terms (broken down by commodity) were used as proxy variables of alcohol consumption. On account of information on percentage of spirit in all alcohol products under review per capita indices of absolute alcohol consumption were estimated for each region specifically, contribution of each product into its forming was also assessed.
The paper examines the structure, governance, and balance sheets of state-controlled banks in Russia, which accounted for over 55 percent of the total assets in the country's banking system in early 2012. The author offers a credible estimate of the size of the country's state banking sector by including banks that are indirectly owned by public organizations. Contrary to some predictions based on the theoretical literature on economic transition, he explains the relatively high profitability and efficiency of Russian state-controlled banks by pointing to their competitive position in such functions as acquisition and disposal of assets on behalf of the government. Also suggested in the paper is a different way of looking at market concentration in Russia (by consolidating the market shares of core state-controlled banks), which produces a picture of a more concentrated market than officially reported. Lastly, one of the author's interesting conclusions is that China provides a better benchmark than the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe by which to assess the viability of state ownership of banks in Russia and to evaluate the country's banking sector.
The results of cross-cultural research of implicit theories of innovativeness among students and teachers, representatives of three ethnocultural groups: Russians, the people of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingushs) and Tuvinians (N=804) are presented. Intergroup differences in implicit theories of innovativeness are revealed: the ‘individual’ theories of innovativeness prevail among Russians and among the students, the ‘social’ theories of innovativeness are more expressed among respondents from the North Caucasus, Tuva and among the teachers. Using the structural equations modeling the universal model of values impact on implicit theories of innovativeness and attitudes towards innovations is constructed. Values of the Openness to changes and individual theories of innovativeness promote the positive relation to innovations. Results of research have shown that implicit theories of innovativeness differ in different cultures, and values make different impact on the attitudes towards innovations and innovative experience in different cultures.
The paper examines the principles for the supervision of financial conglomerates proposed by BCBS in the consultative document published in December 2011. Moreover, the article proposes a number of suggestions worked out by the authors within the HSE research team.